Steve Ellner's Blog on Venezuela, Latin America and Beyond

The centralization of ownership of the private media in the United States and elsewhere has become increasingly pronounced, at the same time that its reporting has become increasingly one-sided and monolithic. My blog seeks to expose this lack of objectivity and present alternative ideas that point in the direction of much-needed fundamental change.

Monday, December 29, 2014

DOUBLE STANDARDS IN CORPORATE MEDIA REPORTING ON THE VENEZUELAN “GUARIMBA”

The killing of two police
officers in New York has received an incredible amount of media attention as
well as unanimous condemnation, just as it should have. It was a horrendous
act. But why didn’t the media react in similar fashion to the murder of 10
security officers including 7 National Guardsmen by opposition protesters in
Venezuela earlier this year? Instead the corporate media harped on alleged
violation of human rights while playing down the unbridled violence perpetrated
by the protesters in Venezuela and the anarchy they attempted to create. The media’s
warped version of events was used by the Obama administration in December to
justify sanctions against Venezuelan government officials. Double standards? A
hidden agenda? Intentional distortion of the facts?

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

AFTER CHAVEZ: THE MADURO GOVERNMENT AND THE ‘ECONOMIC WAR’ IN VENEZUELA

In the following article “After Chavez: The Maduro
Government and the “Economic War” in Venezuela, I present a balanced view of
the government of Nicolas Maduro from a leftist perspective. On the one hand, I
criticize Maduro for not acting decisively in getting the system of exchange
controls under control, while recognizing that the situation he inherited from
Chavez in 2013 was complex. In addition, the article criticizes the Chavista
leadership for not providing space for those who support the process of change
but formulate critical positions. On the other hand, the article argues that
those who deny President Maduro’s leftist credentials and claim that the process
of change is completely in reverse gear ignore that he has upheld and extended
Chávez’s policy toward the private sector which envisions responsibilities and
threatens punishment and, in ultimate instance, expropriation if those
obligations are not fulfilled. Furthermore, the whole issue of exchange
controls and devaluation is largely devoid of ideological implications.

The article was originally written for the printed
version of a magazine which had accepted publication but at a future date. I
decided instead to publish it with the on-line “New Left Project.” I would very
much appreciate feedback and comments of all type:

Saturday, December 20, 2014

CNN AND THE WHITE HOUSE CONFLATE LAISSEZ FARE ECONOMICS AND DEMOCRACY

One
of the assumptions in Obama’s justification of his decision to reestablish
diplomatic relations with Cuba is that the liberalization of the Cuban economy
is part of the process of democratization. The assumption is also part of the
narrative of the corporate media. This line of thinking implies that Washington
is only concerned about democracy when, in fact, its main interest is that the
Cuban economy has moved sufficiently in the direction of capitalism as to allow
U.S. investors to reap handsome profits, as in pre-1959 days. Another
implication is that socialism and democracy are incompatible. It may be argued
that the opposite is true, that true democracy and capitalism are incompatible.
Considering the enormous influence that monopoly corporation lobbies wield in
Washington and how they distort democracy, the latter assertion would appear to
contain more than a small element of truth.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

THE NEW YORK TIMES ON THE “CUBAN FIVE HEROES”

Just one more example of the corporate media’s blatant slants. An article in today’s New York Times on the reaction in Miami to the resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba, states that the Cuban Five “had infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, a group of pilots who would scan the sea for Cuban immigrants.” No mention at all was made of the fact that the Cuban government had uncovered plans of a terrorist plot against Cuba and s...hared the information with the FBI in the form of a 230 page report along with five videocassettes and 8 cassettes. The FBI recognized the seriousness and credibility of the allegations and promised to respond in two weeks. Instead of responding they arrested the Cuban Five who had been sent to Florida to get information that would help thwart the plot. Given the countless well-documented terrorist activity carried out in Cuba perpetrated by Cubans in Miami, the official Cuban version would appear much more credible than the one presented in today’s N.Y. Times. Why is the corporate media so afraid of presenting both sides of the story? Isn’t it their professional responsibility to do so?

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

THE CIA TORTURE PROGRAM WAS NOT AN ABERRATION

The CIA’s torture program goes way back to the height of the Cold War and was institutionally linked. The argument that it was the work of a few operatives doesn’t cut ice. Today’s “Democracy Now” show of Amy Goodman’s debunks that myth. When the scandal around the torture committed in Abu Ghraib, Iraq broke in 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (whose lying habits over the years have been well documented) attributed the actions to a few “bad apples.” That was the same excuse that some CIA defenders used following the release of the recent Senate committee document. However, the fact of the matter is that the intelligence community developed sensory deprivation techniques during the Cold War. And the fact of the matter is that institutions such as the American Psychology Association have been at least informally linked to the torture program. Furthermore, the fact of the matter is that the ten-year delay in the U.S. ratification in 1994 of the U.N. Convention against torture and the reservations that it formulated is another demonstration of Washington’s failure to renounce the use of torture in no uncertain terms. Finally, as the Democracy Now program demonstrates “"Psychological torture is enshrined in U.S. law."http://www.democracynow.org/2014/12/16/psychological_torture_is_enshrined_in_us

Monday, December 15, 2014

TODAY, CNN’S BIASED REPORTING ON VENEZUELA REACHED AN ALL-TIME LOW.

CNN’s feature on Venezuelans who have fled the misery that allegedly
characterizes life in Venezuela left out important details. For instance, they provided
statistics of how many Venezuelans have emigrated to the U.S. and now have
resident or citizen status. They left out the percentage of those ex-patriots
who, without any basis in fact whatsoever, claim they are political refugees
and are given asylum status and eventually citizenship. The thousands of
Central American children fleeing the violence in their country who have been
thrown in detention centers should be so lucky!

Then the report went on to briefly interview a Chavista who presented his
version. The reporter then refuted point by point everything the Chavista said.
Is this principled journalism? That the interviewer knocks everything that the
interviewee states? Then, rather than giving the Chavista the opportunity of
rebuttal, the program interviewed a TV personality, Luis Chataing, who was given
considerable time to talk about how difficult life is in Venezuela. No mention was
made of the fact that Chataing is a well-known bitter critic of the government.

It can’t be a coincidence that all these details just happen to bolster the
case for getting rid of the government of Nicolás Maduro!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

CIA heads Need to be Brought to Trial

If ex-CIA chiefs George Tenet and Porter Goss
are not brought to trial for the torture recently documented by the U.S. Senate,
than Adolf Eichmann should be exonerated. The pseudo doctors of the Nazi concentration
camps didn’t do anything worse.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

SENATE REPORT ON CIA TORTURE IS SHOCKING AND MACABRE

If what the report demonstrates
is not torture than the word doesn’t mean anything. The Senate’s 6,000
page report on CIA torture documents such horrific acts as rectal feeding (or
what they call “rectal hydration”) designed as a way to gain, in the words of
the CIA’s chief of interrogations, “total control over the detainee.” The report
points out that the torture techniques were so horrific that CIA agents at times
attempted to terminate the sessions, but were given orders by senior CIA officials
to continue. The report also suggests that the CIA lied about having carried
out waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques on a limited number of
prisoners. Only the 524 page “executive summary” was declassified. Why wasn’t
more of the text (perhaps excluding only the names of the CIA agents)
published? Is there more in the way of gory details we need to know?

If prosecutions do not
follow the publication of this document, in the U.S. and at the international level,
than the system of justice is nothing but a mockery. Remember, Milosevic was jailed
by the International Court of Justice and actually died in prison in the Hague during
his five-year trial. Will anybody be brought to trial for these criminal acts?

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Today (December 3) CNN reported on the FBI’s investigation into statements by Michael Brown’s stepfather that may have incited the violence in Ferguson following the announcement of the Grand Jury’s verdict. That news item followed another on the Venezuelan government’s judicial actions against Maria Corina Machado and Leopoldo López. CNN interviewed Machado while failing to present the government’s version. The government’s version is that Lopez, Machado and their ilk were responsible for doing exactly the same that the FBI is accusing Michael Brown’s father of doing: inciting violence. The difference is that in the case of Venezuela – unlike the U.S. – seven National Guardsman and three other security forces were killed at the same time that the opposition was basically calling for the overthrow of the government. Does the corporate media realize how obviously one-sided their reporting is?

About Me

Steve Ellner has taught economic history at the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela since 1977. He is the author of numerous books and journal and magazine articles on Venezuela history and politics. He frequently lectures on Venezuela and Latin American political developments in the U.S. and elsewhere. He received his Ph.D. in Latin American history at the University of New Mexico in 1980.